Join
us at the store tonight at 7 p.m. to celebrate two new comic books by local artists Sam Alden and
Ohara Hale! Alden (featured in Best American Comics 2013) will launch It
Never Happened Again (Uncivilized Books), featuring two new stories -
“Hawaii 1997” and “Anime”. Hale (creator of store bestseller L’abc de
monsieur Pizza) will launch Moderne Luv (Rayray Books). There will be
presentations and signing!

Sam Alden's It Never Happened Again showcases two exquisite stories drawn in the artist's signature flowing and lush
pencil style. In “Hawaii 1997,” few words are spoken, but Alden's imagery
evokes the magic of a night-time encounter at a Hawaiian resort. In “Anime” he
explores the complicated dynamics of pop culture obsession. Sam Alden is
one of the brightest young talents working today. Check out this laudatory review in Publishers Weekly!

Sam Alden was born in 1988 in Portland,
Oregon. In 2013 he won the Ignatz Award for most promising new talent,
and was an official guest at the BilBoLbul festival in Bologna, Italy.
His work has been previously published in Best American Comics 2013, from Houghton-Mifflin. Sam now lives and works as an illustrator and cartoonist in Montréal.

Drawn in a minimalist style with a thick black pencil and paired with a lighthearted and simple slang-based dialogue, Ohara Hale's Moderne Luv conveys true-to-life emotion and intimacy with remarkable brevity. The story follows the relationship of two (seemingly) easily recognizable, yet anatomically distorted characters as they struggle to navigate the ins and out of some common conundrums: the need/desire for physical intimacy, the convenience/alienation of technology, and our ever-more pressing drive to "work". The book flows playfully but with a tinge of melancholy, covering mature topics and ending with ambiguity, leaving the reader to "react and interpret the ending based on their own experience".Ohara Hale, a Montreal based artist, illustrator and published children's book author, has been self-publishing her own small zines of jokes and small comics such as "Pizza Doing Stuff" and "Butts Over Butt" over the past few years. Now, she is debuting Moderne Luv, her first 40 page comic book with Ray Ray Books (Brooklyn, NY), along with other smaller comics focusing on same subject matter!